So what’s next for the U.S? Now that’s a real interesting question with an even more interesting possible answer. Recently, one of the partners here at Aquaponics Earth made a very interesting statement. He said this:

“America is going to return to its agrarian roots.”

So exactly what is an agrarian society? An agrarian society is one that is based on agriculture as its prime means for support and sustenance. Such a society acknowledges other means of livelihood and work habits but stresses agriculture and farming as it’s main focus and source of GDP. Agriculture was the main form of socioeconomic organization for most of recorded human history. At a time when major food crises are predicted all over the globe, agriculture is the profession to be in. And that’s what were predicting, a kind of “Back to the Future” way of life for the U.S. where we become the world’s most technologically advanced farmers on the planet who are capable of growing massive amounts of food in sustainable ways.

Hold on, small farmers and ranchers, you’re about to experience a Renaissance. For the past 60 plus years, the American family farm has dwindled to a mere shadow of its former self. Big Agricultural companies have dominated the agricultural scene creating factory farms capable of putting out faster, fatter, chickens, beef cattle and pigs. Large chemical companies have created pest-spray resistant seeds referred to as GMO seeds to herald in the most prolific crops of corn, soy and soon, wheat, ever seen. On the one hand, that shift has been a great benefit resulting in cheaper meat for the consumer and lots of inexpensive corn and soy based products in the supermarkets (health concerns aside). 

But if our future prediction is correct, the family farm will enjoy a resurgence in our society and be able to provide an American farm family a good living. Adding a commercial Recirculating Aquaculture System to an existing livestock farm can revitalize the concept of the family farm and make it commercially viable again. There is a growing demand for natural, healthy locally grown food, both meat and vegetables; and there’s an awakened desire in the U.S. consumer to know where their food is coming from as they choose more and more to buy locally.

Unlike our industrial base, we don’t have to rebuild old, decayed buildings or retrofit long out-dated machinery to revive a farm. Mother nature has been patiently waiting for the return of the family farmers to their roots; and with the fall of real estate prices, there’s some real farmland bargains out there. Yes, there are severe water shortages; but that’s where a RAS comes into the picture because it can grow fruits and vegetables using 1/10th the water it takes for tillage farming while using 80% less land.  This means you don’t even have to be in a pastoral setting to be a farmer. You can actually farm right in the middle of a city. And that’s what we mean when we say the new farming culture will be using advanced farming technology while being sustainable. The future is, indeed, bright for farmers in the U.S. whether they’re on farmland or not.

One man’s dream for his devastated city could be an entire nation’s new direction.

John Hantz, a long-time Detroit resident and founder of Hantz Financial Services located in Michigan, Ohio and Georgia, is putting his money where his dreams are.

What’s happening in Detroit? Given this belief in the future of agriculture, you can imagine our glee when we discovered what’s about to take Detroit by storm. You guessed it--FARMING--a large farm right in the middle of the once bright mecca of the Industrialization Age in America.

$30 Million to build . . . Farms? Yes, Farms--several 300 acre pods or lakes resulting in a very large, for-profit agricultural enterprise contained fully within the city limits of Detroit. This large scale farm project could bring profits and jobs back to a city dying of  decaying urban blight as well as provide locally available affordable, healthy food   while reducing food miles from thousands of miles to tens. And what’s more, the farm would occupy all the empty land (approximately 40 sq. miles) left bare due to aggressive and necessary demolition of abandoned and dangerous buildings. The end result, Detroit would be a city embracing scarcity (the John Hantz “Ah Ha” moment) once again; and we all know what that means. It’s the supply and demand motto of capitalism. Give me scarcity and I’ll give you demand. In his big “Ah Ha”, Mr. Hantz realized what Detroit needed most was “scarcity,” hence, the very large farm idea was born. His hope is that once “scarcity” returns to Detroit, investors will flood back in with it to buy up all the remaining and very inexpensive real estate waiting for reconstruction.

In agreement with Mr. Hantz is the American Institute of Architects who, after studying the city’s options at the request of civic leaders, stated that “Detroit is particularly well suited to become a pioneer in urban agriculture at a commercial scale.” Likewise, Henry Disneros, now chairman of CityView, a private equity firm that invests in urban development says he’s also in favor of “other uses . . . such as urban agriculture.”

Hantz said, “Don’t think a farm with tractors. That’s old.” This farm will utilize the latest in farm technology including hydroponics (growing vegetables in water not soil), aeroponics (air only growing systems) and, if we here at Aquaponics Earth have anything to say about it, a RAS (raising plants and fish in an integrated system). All three of these growing technologies have one important thing in common, space compression. They can grow very dense crops in 80% less space than it takes for tillage farming without tractors and other heavy, carbon producing, gas guzzling machinery.

The future is, indeed, bright for American farmers who are willing to take bold new steps into it by embracing new technology like a RAS, Methane Digesters, Plants-to-Fuel Conversion operations and the myriad other opportunities that await the forward-looking farmer of the 21st Century.

The thought of America becoming a land of farmers once again brings with it the hope that this kind of transformation would also bring back our reverence for the land and our stewardship of it, concepts which are the exact opposite of what the industrial age brought our way as industries grew into corporate giants with little regard for the consequences of  dumping massive amounts of harmful chemical pollutants into our environment and overfishing our oceans until the wild food-fish populations are decimated past their ability to recover.

Of all of the people on our planet, it’s our farmers who have always understood the importance of sustainability so they could maintain their farms in a way that would allow them to be passed down to their children. Farmers are the hope for our future.